In 2014, chef Davide Cerretini marketed a special that could forever alternate his fate: Anyone who left his restaurant a 1-celebrity review on Yelp would get 25% off a pizza.
See, his Italian joint, Botto Bistro, which is primarily based in the Bay Area, has become at a crossroads. Like many small organizations, it was enslaved to the whims of online reviewers, whose public dispatches ought to make or destroy its reputation.
He’d had enough. It was time to free the celebs from the “cold, grubby hands of Yelpers” and take control of his destiny.
But the pass might set Cerretini at the center of extended-status warfare between Yelp and disgruntled business proprietors — a war that includes cries of “extortion,” overview manipulation, and predatory marketing tactics.
A young chef’s adventure
Born to vineyard operators in Collemontanino, Italy, Cerretini loved a childhood of culinary delights—home-cooked meals, pure ingredients, and simple delicacies.
In the mid-’90s, he immigrated to America to attempt his hand in the restaurant exchange.
After years of toiling in backroom kitchens, he went in with a companion and opened his first eating place, Cacciucco Cucina Toscana, in Sausalito, California. With his gregarious character and “Italian attraction,” Cerretini has become a community staple and established robust ties with unswerving clients. The business turned into a booming.
By the give up of 2008, Cerretini lost the whole lot and was forced to sell his restaurant for a small sum of coins. “I notion the whole lot was over,” he says. “Then, I found this little region in Richmond, California.”
The new region was everything he desired: It became reasonably priced, near his dependable clients, and, most importantly, unpretentious. He referred to it as Botto Bistro.
Botto goes virtual
As a restaurateur, Cerretini was an early adopter of Yelp.
Launched in 2004 with the aid of former PayPal employee Jeremy Stoppelman, the platform’s person-submitted 5-star rating gadget quickly became a vital part of every small business’s online footprint. Cerretini knew that a trifling half-celebrity distinction in a restaurant’s score should increase top-hours foot site visitors by 19%.
By the time Botto Bistro opened its doors in 2009, Yelp had boasted 26 million unique site visitors, consistent with the month. Whether intentionally or not, the platform had entrenched itself as the controller of every small business’s online recognition—and fate.
In the months after Botto Bistro’s grand opening, Cerretini received dozens of calls from Yelp salespeople, who implored him to shop for advertisements.
According to Ferretti, when he rebuffed those gives, he’d frequently observe that freshly published five-star reviews could be eliminated from his page — often no less than 24 hours after getting off the smartphone with a Yelp rep.
“I came from Italy and understand exactly what mafia extortion looks like,” he says. Yelp began manipulating reviews and hoping I would pay a protection charge. I didn’t come to America and work for 25 years to be extorted by some idiot in Silicon Valley.”
Faced with undulating star scores, Cerretini resulted in a devious measure.
“I wrote myself five-famous person critiques,” he admits. “I wasn’t a great guy. I changed into writing faux ones to update the real ones they removed.”
Documented records shared with The Hustle through a Yelp spokesperson tell a fuller tale of Cerretini’s moves.
Under the alias “Babghanoush I,” Cerretini published thirteen wonderful faux evaluations for Botto Bistro, as well as fake crucial opinions of neighboring eating places — once in a while going to this point as to disparage fellow owners.
Yelp rebuffed Cerretini’s extortion claims, substituting that the platform’s algorithm routinely filters reviews based on some of the criteria (which are not public) for the removal of fine Botto Bistro evaluations. These “filtered” opinions are still visible to clients, but they no longer factor into a commercial enterprise’s usual big-name score.
